Under-pressure Gayle fails again in Windies warm-up defeat

Tue, Oct 19, '21

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CMC) — Pressure continued to mount on out of form superstar Chris Gayle after yet another failure yesterday during West Indies' seven-wicket defeat to Pakistan in their first official warm-up ahead of next weekend's start of the Twenty20 World Cup group stage.

The Caribbean side mustered only 130 for seven off their 20 overs, with Shimron Hetmyer top-scoring with 28 and Captain Kieron Pollard getting 12, while the 42-year-old Gayle scraped 20 from 30 deliveries.

In reply, Pakistan easily chased down the paltry target at the ICC Academy with 27 balls to spare. The run chase was spearheaded by Captain Babar Azam who stroked exactly 50 off 41 deliveries while Fakhar Zaman hit an unbeaten 46 from 24.

Gayle, whose place in the side has been questioned due to his wretched average of 17 in T20 Internationals this year, failed to change any minds, counting two fours before going bowled by fast bowler Haris Rauf (2-32) in the 14th over with only 63 runs on the board.

Read more at the Jamaica Observer